Windows 10: Upgrade to larger ssd problem

I used Macrium Reflect to close my ssd boot drive. To test it I changed BIOS to look at usb drive first in boot order.

But when it boots it fails. This is a new HP laptop.

Is there something I need to do other than clone before it would boot?

:)

 

Windows activation key

I upgraded the SSD to a larger capacity. I cloned the smaller SSD on to the larger SSD. It boots.

Now the PC is telling me that I need to activate Windows. I called Microsoft and they put me into an automated activation key process. It was not successful.

Can someone advise me on how to recover the activation key from the smaller SSD? It came, Windows 10 enabled, with the machine.

 

upgrading hdd to larger ssd/hd

Hi Jacko,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

As this was used by an Organization, you need to purchase new product key to activate.

For Microsoft Store purchases and questions, visit
Sales and Support.

Regards,

Guru Kiran

 

Just a bit more info:

when it boots, it just comes to a screen that says there has been a problem and we'll restart.

I pulled the USB drive, and booted up. I plugged in the USB drive and compared it to the C: drive in Drive Manager, and it appeared the same. I rebooted, and it went into a recovery mode. I was tempted to tell it to repair the drive, but I wasn't sure it would do that to the D: drive as opposed to the C: drive.

 

If you actually cloned the old SSD to the New SSD all you need to do is remove the old SSD, put your bios to boot from windows Boot manager and boot up. Attach your old SSD VIA USB either with a SATA to USB or external case. and format it

 

I finally read the small text below the QR code, which says "Inaccessible boot device".

When that happens, it is after I have set USB device above Boot Manager, expecting to boot from the USB I cloned. (I do have that drive in an enclosure and hooked to the USB port on the laptop).

Makes me think that something didn't take on the cloning. When I look at the c: drive, and the USB drive in Disk Manager, they are similar, but of course the C: drive lists this in the box:

Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash, Dump, Primary Partition)

The cloned drive shows this:

Healthy (Primary Partition)

I really hate to pull the bottom of this new PC if the drive won't work. Is there a reason you can think of why the cloned drive hooked up this way would not boot?

 

I found some articles on inaccessible boot device. Suggestions were to go into safe mode, then reboot normally. I can't get it to go into safe mode, even after setting it in MSCONFIG.

 

I found some articles on inaccessible boot device. Suggestions were to go into safe mode, then reboot normally. I can't get it to go into safe mode, even after setting it in MSCONFIG.

I could get it to boot to safe mode when booting off the C: drive.

I'm tempted to tell it to reinstall windows from the recovery. Just afraid it will do it to the C: drive rather than the USB drive. But, I guess, that shouldn't be a problem. I may give that a try.

 

I think the basic problem is expecting the clone of that internal disk to boot through a USB port. I've seen ways to make that external clone boot through the USB port but can't find an up to date solution as of yet.

You'll have to open the PC eventually to install it so why not give it a try? - you can always reverse it if it doesn't work.

 

I suspect you are correct.

I probably will end up going down that route.

Thanks for the input.

 

Please let us know how it works out or of any further problems. Good Luck!

BTW, some folks here, myself included, went the route (with Macrium) of simply imaging the old disk to an external USB and, after installing the new disk, booting from Macrium Rescue and restoring the image. The new disk booted fine and Windows made any driver adjustments necessary on its own. That's another way to skin the cat.

Also @56Kruiser - did you clone using Macrium live in Windows or booted from Macrium rescue media? Booting into Macrium WinPE based rescue media may be a more reliable means for this operation.

 

I appreciate all the help, folks.

I probably didn't do the best method. I hooked the new SSD drive to USB, then cloned the boot disk from within the PC after booting. Seeing the recommendations, I see a better way to do that.

All this being said, I have pulled the bottom and find that the SSD 'drive' in the computer is actually a Sandisk 128GB stick:





The good news is that the 'new' ssd is not a new one, but one I pulled from my old laptop that I parted out. It is a good Samsung EVO drive.

So the computer has no CD/DVD. I presume my course of action should be:

• Get a 512 GB stick (actually what I pictured above)
• When it arrives, image backup the current boot drive
• make a recovery USB stick (I presume I can do that...maybe I should give it a try given my failure with the attempt I just made)
• Boot to the USB
• Restore to the new installed SSD card

Make sense?

 

Sounds good to me.

Macrium has a knowledge base article on prepping the USB stick for installing the bootable WinPE rescue version of MR here: https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...for+Windows+PE

 

Thanks!

I wonder if not having a master boot record on the cloned drive was why I couldn't get it to boot. Makes no difference now, of course.

If that's teh case, makes me think that clone is not truly a clone function.

 

I just went over to that link and thought I'd go through the process to see if I can get it to work.

It doesn't say, so I'll ask if you know: Do I go through that process first, then go trough the create PE Disk process through Macrium? I am thinking surely so, but thought I'd ask first.

Thanks...